Amazon Acquires Gaming Studio Double Helix

Amazon have snapped up Double Helix Games in a deal that was to gain them some extra talent as well as the companies IP’s. It is not known how much the deal was worth, but given the studios history and the skill of its 75 strong team we imagine it wasn’t especially cheap.

All the members of Double Helix Games team will now become Amazon employees, but will remain working from their home in Orange County, there is just a new overseer taking and paying the cheques. What is interesting is that this is adding fuel to the fire that Amazon are preparing to launch their own games console later this year.

With Amazon rumoured to launch an Android powered console which personally I couldn’t care less about given the constant appearance, then failure of countless other devices in the low-cost console market. But with a great developer on board, they may actually have a chance at having some good titles, so who knows, maybe it won’t be complete garbage like some of the other efforts we’ve seen hit the market.

Double Helix Games have a great history, the company is made up from the studios Shiny and The Collective which merged a few years back. Between them they’ve created games like MDK, Earthworm Jim, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Killer Instinct, Silent Hill: Homecoming and a whole lot more. Plus they also have their next title Strider hitting the PS3 later this month.

Amazon are a great owner to have, they’ve got the finances to really push things to the next level, so it could be an interesting future for Double Helix, lets just hope it’s because the Amazon bosses are Earth Worm Jim fans and want to make a new game in that series… fingers crossed.